Many types of splicing devices have been used in the carpet manufacturing industry to join one yarn package to another when textile machinery requires a continuous supply of yarn. One machine that requires a continuous yarn supply is a carpet tufting machine for manufacturing pile carpet. The tufting machine has creels associated therewith, and the creels use several pairs of yarn packages. The creel uses and depletes the first package and then uses the second package. Typically, an operator splices the trailing end of the first package to the leading end of the second package to provide the creel with a continuous supply of yarn.
Continuous operation of the carpet manufacturing machinery results in maximum production of the machines and ultimately maximum profit. When the carpet manufacturing machines are not operating, the carpet manufacturing company loses both productivity and money. The continued operation of the tufting machine depends, in part, on a continuous supply of yarn. Thus, the timely and effective splicing of yarn supply packages directly impacts the productivity of the carpet manufacturing process.
Splicing the yarns quickly and effectively is important for the continued operation of the tufting machinery. A tufting operator is responsible for providing a continuous yarn supply to the machinery. The operator makes sure that several yarn packages are continuously available for feeding into the machines. During normal operation, the operator may be splicing up to fourteen (14) yarn packages per minute. Thus, it is important to minimize the splicing time.
In addition to timeliness, it is also important that the splice be small, yet effective. Initially, weaver's knots were used as a method to join the leading and trailing yarn packages. When done properly a weaver's knot is sufficiently small and effectively holds the two yarn pieces together for most applications. Where many needles are used in a small area, yarn spliced by weaver's knots will not feed through the needles. In addition, the formation of a weaver's knot requires considerable manual dexterity and, if done continuously for a prolonged period of time, can cause pain and fatigue in the worker's hands and arms. Moreover, the free ends of a weaver's knot are of inconsistent length. If the free ends are too long, they may not properly feed into the machine and thus cause the machine to shut down. In addition, too much time would be required to cut the free ends of the weaver's knot to a consistent length.
Turning now to prior art splicing devices, all of the cited hand-held air splicing devices have been designed to include multiple nozzles that provide pressurized air to a splicing chamber. Moreover, the prior art requires that the yarns be manually fed into the devices. This process is cumbersome, time consuming and requires precision and significant coordination on the part of the operator.
Czelusniak et al. (U.S. Pat. Nos. 4,833,872 and 4,825,630) disclose methods and devices for air splicing yarn. The claimed devices include a cylindrical housing having an axial passageway and an open center. In addition, the Czelusniak devices include a pressurized air source connected to the housing. A circular channel, enclosed within the housing, is connected to the air source. A series of small passageways extends radially inward from the circular channel. The passageways are arranged at an angle from the center of the device so as to cause the pressurized air to move in a circular manner.
Crouch et al. (U.S. Pat. No. 4,788,814) discloses a manually operated air splicing device that is mounted near a textile winder. The device includes a cylindrical passageway, a pressurized air supply, an air channel, inwardly extending passageways connecting the channel to the passageway and a spring loaded arm to supply pressurized air to the channel. To operate, the user feeds both yarn pieces in the passageway and presses the arm to supply pressurized air to the passageway. The air creates a turbulent effect as it moves through the channel and into the passageways to splice the yarn pieces together.
The prior art devices and methods discussed above are undesirable for several reasons. All require the operator to manually feed the yarn pieces to be spliced into one end of the device. This requires considerable time and coordination of the operator. In addition, manually fed yarns often get misled. A splice that is misfed may be weak and break apart. A misfed splice may also have a longer tail which would fail to pass through the tufting needles and cause the machines to shut down. Moreover, the multiple passageways must have smaller diameters in order to deliver high pressure air to the splicing chamber. The smaller diameter passageways tend to clog when dust, dirt, oil and moisture particles enter the air system. A clogged passageway renders the device inoperable and requires the user to clear the passageway. To prevent the reoccurrence of a clogged passageway, the prior art devices are often used with an air filtration unit.
In addition, the prior art devices cited create splices that are often too large to fit through the tufting needles. When this occurs, the machine shuts down and requires rethreading before starting up again. Thus, a small splice is desired to ensure that the splice will easily pass through the tufting needles and prevent shut down problems with the tufting machinery.
It has also been found that the prior art devices ineffectively splice polypropylene yarns. Polypropylene yarn is a higher quality material used in the carpet industry today. Due to the quality and cost of polypropylene, carpet manufacturers want to use it as often as possible. If the availability of air splicing devices presently on the market cannot effectively splice polypropylene fibers, carpet manufacturers will be limited in the production of polypropylene carpet. A device that effectively splices a polyprophylene yarns would enable carpet manufacturers to produce a greater volume of higher quality carpet.
Thus, there is a need for an air splicing device and method that introduces pressurized air into a splicing chamber at a single location. There is a further need for an air splicing device and method that provides for larger air passageways through which pressurized air travels.
There is yet a further need for an air splicing device and method that does not require an air filtering device.
There is yet a further need for an air splicing device and method that does not clog when particles are introduced into the air system.
There is still a further need for an air splicing device and method that automatically feeds the yarn into the device.
There is yet a further need for an air splicing device and method that severs the yarn while it is within the device.
There is still a further need for an air splicing and device that effectively splices polypropylene yarns.
There is still a further need for an air splicing device and method that consistently produces splices of the same length.
There is still a further need for an air splicing device and method that consistently produces a sufficiently small splice capable of passing through needles used in carpet manufacturing machinery.